Archives for July 4, 2018

Key Highlights

ETH price failed once again around the $482-484 resistance and declined against the US Dollar.

There is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $454 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).

The pair is holding the $450 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average, which is a positive sign.

Ethereum price is placed in a positive zone against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD must stay above the $454 support and the 100 hourly SMA to move higher.

Ethereum Price Trend

Yesterday, there was a decent upside move above the $465 resistance in ETH price against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair traded above the $480 level, but the upsides were capped by the $484 level. A high was formed at $484.22 and the price corrected lower. It moved below the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $449 low to $484 high.

However, declines were supported near the $455-460 zone. More importantly, the 100 hourly simple moving average also acted as a strong support near the $460 zone. The 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $449 low to $484 high also played its part in stopping the last decline. On the downside, there is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $454 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. Therefore, it seems like the pair is well supported above the $450 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Looking at the chart, the price is currently trading well above $460 and the 100 hourly SMA. On the upside, an initial resistance is around the $474 level. Above this, the most important barrier for buyers is near $482-484. Finally, a break above this could push the price to a new monthly high above $490.

Key Highlights

ETH price failed once again around the $482-484 resistance and declined against the US Dollar.

There is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $454 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).

The pair is holding the $450 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average, which is a positive sign.

Ethereum price is placed in a positive zone against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD must stay above the $454 support and the 100 hourly SMA to move higher.

Ethereum Price Trend

Yesterday, there was a decent upside move above the $465 resistance in ETH price against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair traded above the $480 level, but the upsides were capped by the $484 level. A high was formed at $484.22 and the price corrected lower. It moved below the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $449 low to $484 high.

However, declines were supported near the $455-460 zone. More importantly, the 100 hourly simple moving average also acted as a strong support near the $460 zone. The 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $449 low to $484 high also played its part in stopping the last decline. On the downside, there is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $454 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. Therefore, it seems like the pair is well supported above the $450 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Looking at the chart, the price is currently trading well above $460 and the 100 hourly SMA. On the upside, an initial resistance is around the $474 level. Above this, the most important barrier for buyers is near $482-484. Finally, a break above this could push the price to a new monthly high above $490.

Key Points

Bitcoin cash price retested the $740 support zone and is currently holding gains against the US Dollar.

There is a new connecting bullish trend line formed with support at $742 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

The pair must stay above the $740-750 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Bitcoin cash price is holding gains above $740 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD has to move above the $780 and $800 resistances to gain upside momentum.

Bitcoin Cash Price Support

There was an extended decline in bitcoin cash price below the $780 support against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair traded below the $750 support and even spiked below the $740 support. A low was formed near the $735 level and the price recovered from losses. It moved above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $828 high to $735 low.

More importantly, it settled above the $740 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There was also a spike above the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $828 high to $735 low. However, the price failed to hold gains above the $800 level and declined once again. It is currently trading a few points above the $760 support and the 100 hourly SMA. There is also a new connecting bullish trend line formed with support at $742 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. Therefore, the price remains supported above the $740-750 support zone.

Looking at the chart, the price is struggling to overtake the $800 barrier, above which, the price may retest $828. On the downside, a break and close below the $740 support may perhaps ignite more declines towards the $700 level.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is currently flat in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is just above the 50 level.

Key Points

Bitcoin cash price retested the $740 support zone and is currently holding gains against the US Dollar.

There is a new connecting bullish trend line formed with support at $742 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

The pair must stay above the $740-750 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Bitcoin cash price is holding gains above $740 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD has to move above the $780 and $800 resistances to gain upside momentum.

Bitcoin Cash Price Support

There was an extended decline in bitcoin cash price below the $780 support against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair traded below the $750 support and even spiked below the $740 support. A low was formed near the $735 level and the price recovered from losses. It moved above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $828 high to $735 low.

More importantly, it settled above the $740 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There was also a spike above the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $828 high to $735 low. However, the price failed to hold gains above the $800 level and declined once again. It is currently trading a few points above the $760 support and the 100 hourly SMA. There is also a new connecting bullish trend line formed with support at $742 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. Therefore, the price remains supported above the $740-750 support zone.

Looking at the chart, the price is struggling to overtake the $800 barrier, above which, the price may retest $828. On the downside, a break and close below the $740 support may perhaps ignite more declines towards the $700 level.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is currently flat in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is just above the 50 level.

EOS price is finding support at the bottom of the long-term ascending channel on the daily chart.

This lines up with the bottom of a short-term falling channel, so a test of this resistance is due.

If the nearby resistance levels are broken, EOS price could gain more upside traction to the longer-term channel top.

EOS bounced off the short-term and long-term channel support and is on its way to test the nearby resistance levels.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still above the longer-term 200 SMA on this time frame to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This means that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse. However, the gap has narrowed enough to signal that a bearish crossover might be a possibility.

For now, price is making its way up to the top of the short-term descending channel, which is close to the 38.2% to 50% Fibonacci retracement levels. These are also spanned by the moving averages dynamic inflection points.

If these resistance levels hold, EOS might make another test of the channel bottom or even break lower. However, RSI is pointing up on this time frame to show that bullish pressure remains in play. Stochastic is also on the move up so EOS price could follow suit while buyers have the upper hand.

EOSUSD Chart from TradingView

Market Factors

Cryptocurrencies are holding on to their gains so far, and it helps that there have been no negative industry updates yet. Optimism that the industry could regain better footing during the second half of the year appears to be driving the rallies, although some think that it is just a dead cat bounce or profit-taking from the earlier slide.

The dollar faces a couple of major event risks this week, namely the FOMC minutes and NFP release. If these weigh on Fed tightening expectations, EOS and its peers could be poised to take advantage.

EOS price is finding support at the bottom of the long-term ascending channel on the daily chart.

This lines up with the bottom of a short-term falling channel, so a test of this resistance is due.

If the nearby resistance levels are broken, EOS price could gain more upside traction to the longer-term channel top.

EOS bounced off the short-term and long-term channel support and is on its way to test the nearby resistance levels.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still above the longer-term 200 SMA on this time frame to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This means that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse. However, the gap has narrowed enough to signal that a bearish crossover might be a possibility.

For now, price is making its way up to the top of the short-term descending channel, which is close to the 38.2% to 50% Fibonacci retracement levels. These are also spanned by the moving averages dynamic inflection points.

If these resistance levels hold, EOS might make another test of the channel bottom or even break lower. However, RSI is pointing up on this time frame to show that bullish pressure remains in play. Stochastic is also on the move up so EOS price could follow suit while buyers have the upper hand.

EOSUSD Chart from TradingView

Market Factors

Cryptocurrencies are holding on to their gains so far, and it helps that there have been no negative industry updates yet. Optimism that the industry could regain better footing during the second half of the year appears to be driving the rallies, although some think that it is just a dead cat bounce or profit-taking from the earlier slide.

The dollar faces a couple of major event risks this week, namely the FOMC minutes and NFP release. If these weigh on Fed tightening expectations, EOS and its peers could be poised to take advantage.

Security researchers have revealed that a controversial malware is targeting MacOS users talking about cryptocurrencies on Slack and Discord.

“Dumb” MacOS Attack

The malware was first reported by Remco Verhoef of SANS. He explained that the attacks would impersonate “key people” in chats which are related to cryptocurrencies and then share malicious scripts.

The wrongdoers would try to encourage users to paste the script into the Terminal window of their Macs which would send a command to download 34MB file and execute it. In turn, this would establish a remote connection which would act as a backdoor for the hackers.

The obvious flaws in the plan of the attackers caught the attention of Patrick Wardle, a Mac malware expert. In a more detailed blog post, he noted that:

the infection method is dumb

the massive size of the binary is dumb

the persistence mechanism is lame (and thus also dumb)

the capabilities are rather limited (and thus rather dumb)

it’s trivial to detect at every step (that dumb)

… and finally, the malware saves the user’s password to dumpdummy

Common Sense is the Only Protection You Need

The binary executes a set of libraries, including those of Open SSL, which encrypt its communications back to the server. Remco Verhoef managed to establish that the bash script attempts to connect to a system which belongs to CrownCloud – a German hosting provider.

Once the binary is executed, it would provide the attacker with the ability to successfully execute command-line codes as if he is the root user of the MacOS which is infected.

In order for this to happen, however, the owner of the Mac needs to enter a password, allowing the script to go on. Ironically, the script would store said password in a temporary file which is named “dumpdummy,” as noted by Wardle.

In other words, all you have to do to prevent this malware from causing any damage is refrain from pasting a script provided to you by someone on Slack or Discord on your Terminal window.

What do you think of this malware targeting MacOS users? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below.